Eczacibasi looking to return to past glory

Eczacibasi Dynavit Istanbul are one of the four teams still in contention for the 2026 women’s CEV Champions League title. Looking to return to past continental glory, the Turkish team will also rely on the home fans’ support as they take to the court at the Ulker hall in Istanbul for the Final Four matches on May 2 and 3. Their next obstacle on the dream road to Europe’s continental crown will be none other than reigning club world champions Savino Del Bene Scandicci of Italy, with whom they will lock horns in one of the semifinals a week from Saturday.

Eczacibasi, one of Europe’s leading clubs, has, in fact, triumphed as continental champions only once in history and that was back over a decade ago, when they earned the 2015 title after two wins at the Final Four event in Szczecin, Poland, inspired by some top-caliber international stars like USA’s Jordan Larson, Croatia’s Maja Poljak, Dominican Republic’s Bethania de la Cruz and Türkiye’s own favourite Neslihan Demir, under Italian coach Giovanni Caprara.

It is the 12th time Eczacibasi reach the semifinals of Europe’s top-tier club competition. At three of the previous 11, they made it to the final showdowns, claiming silver in 1980 and, most recently, in 2023, in addition to topping the podium in 2015.

The Turkish club has been more successful at the FIVB Volleyball Women’s Club World Championships. They earned the world champions’ title as many as three times. The first two were back in their glory days in the middle of last decade – 2015 and 2016. Eczacibasi managed to return to the top of the world some three years ago, in 2023, to add the sixth Club World Championship medal to their collection, also featuring one silver and two bronze medals from the planetary competition.

Furthermore, Eczacibasi’s trophy showcase contains three CEV Cup / Cup Winners Cup crowns, 28 national titles in Türkiye, nine national cup and five national super cup trophies. The most recent one of these, however, is the 2022 CEV Cup victory, which means that the club has not topped a major podium since their Club World Championship triumph in 2023.

And that can mean only one thing: Eczacibasi are hungry for fresh gold!

Their road to the Final Four in Istanbul started in Pool C of the group stage of the competition. Eczacibasi shut out Serbia’s Zeleznicar Lajkovac at home in their opening game, but were then surprised upon their visit to Greece’s Olympiacos Piraeus with a 3-2 defeat. It was their last defeat in the pool. Eczacibasi swept their second matches against these two teams and battled it out for five-set victories in both encounters with their main pool rival, Italy’s Numia Vero Volley Milano.

Finishing on top of the pool standings on a 5-1 win-loss record and 14 points, Eczacibasi advanced straight to the Champions League quarterfinals, where they met Poland’s DevelopRes Rzeszow. In the first leg, the Istanbul powerhouse achieved a four-set home victory. In the second, they won the first two sets, enough to secure their Final Four ticket, before the home team reverse-swept the match for a 3-2 victory.

"We achieved our goal and made it to the Final Four. We are happy and proud of what we have achieved so far," Eczacibasi’s Polish star opposite Magdalena Stysiak said after that game.

With players like Stysiak, the team certainly has potential to achieve way more… Stysiak is the team’s best scorer of the Champions League season so far with a total of 125 points across the eight matches played. Her teammate, middle blocker Sinead Jack-Kısal, was the best blocker of the entire pool stage with 25 stuffs to her name. She has also registered the highest success rate in attack so far in the competition among all players of the four semifinalists. Within the four teams, there is no better receiver than Eczacibasi’s outside hitter Ebrar Karakurt so far in the Champions League, while playmaker Dilay Ozdemir showed a better setting efficiency in the pool phase than any other playmaker heading to the Final Four.

Eczacibasi’s character is also shaped by other top-caliber players like American middle Dana Rettke, outside Kathryn Plummer, also from the United States, Turkish setter Elif Sahin, Turkish libero Simge Sebnem Akoz, etc. And for the first time since their golden years under Giovanni Caprara and Massimo Barbolini, the team from Istanbul has another Italian coach in the helm - Giulio Bregoli, who is also hungry for his first Champions League honours.